How long after uni did you start contracting?

[Torran]

Never went to Uni, did O levels, messed about for a bit, ended up in IT by accident. It was the only thing I could do reasonably well that I didn't have to try too hard at.

ditto that

[ratewhore]

University of Life - School of hard knocks etc etc. 9 years forces, 2 years perm, redundancy, contracting, never looked back...

[spoons]

Never went to Uni, did O levels, messed about for a bit, ended up in IT by accident. It was the only thing I could do reasonably well that I didn't have to try too hard at.

All sounds very familiar

[allerune]

I started contracting 3 months ago, 2 months after getting my Masters in Computer Science. I had 2 years of full time experience...
...that was the best decision in my career so far

[Mor4]

Started this year , partially graduated from uni i.e. still got project to hand in.

Iv got 16 months work experience .


I don't think i will go for permie until i have handed my project in.

[pmeswani]

I graduated from Leeds Met in 1996, graduated from the Open University in 2004. Take your pick which graduation date you wish to use... Started contracting in November 2007.

[NickNick]

Started this year , partially graduated from uni i.e. still got project to hand in.

Iv got 16 months work experience .


I don't think i will go for permie until i have handed my project in.

Might I also suggest brushing up on your written skills before starting work?

[Robster]

University? does not compute.....

I flunked my A-Levels, spend 3/4 years floating, doing office temping, and playing around with websites before I got my first IT contract.

I always think that length of time is a bit of a stupid way to measure experience, because you could have spent years doing the same donkey work tasks over and over and not learnt anything. I was once asked if I had 4+ years experience of applying Ghost images....ah the wonders of clueless recruitment consultants and HR departments.

[Jaws]

I agree length of time means very little in when it comes to level of skill.

After about 8 years permanent I started contracting back in January. No degree or anything like that but I'm taking a masters in computer science from October onwards, mainly to make it easier for me to work outside of this (god forsaken) country.

[u9k82]

After 4 Years as a Permie ( Business Process Analysis) i moved over to the dark side first contract was 2 years ago at 375 per day

I was just about ready , I was part of a major company and put through alot of mentoring and training . I would say 4-5 at least

Its important that you get some qualifications first (prince 2 , six sigma , CMMI)